新闻周刊:非洲第一个超级大国的到来比你想象的要快(1)（在线收听）

Black China: Africa's First Superpower Is Coming Sooner Than You Think

黑人中国:非洲第一个超级大国的到来比你想象的要快

By Sam Hill

作者：萨姆·希尔

It's midnight in a medieval palace in the oldest city in West Africa: Kano, Nigeria.

午夜时分，在西非最古老的城市——尼日利亚卡诺的一座中世纪宫殿里。

A thousand years ago, this was one of the richest cities in the world, the terminus of the cross-Saharan trade that brought salt to exchange for slaves, gold and ivory. The palace has 5-foot thick walls, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, stone pathways and ornate mosaic domes. On the walls are large color photographs of a serious-looking man wearing a white turban with a veil across the bottom of his face. The two tails of the ceremonial knot that holds the veil in place look like bunny ears.

一千年前，这里曾是世界上最富裕的城市之一，是撒哈拉以南地区的贸易枢纽，这里用盐交换奴隶、黄金和象牙。宫殿有5英尺厚的墙壁，从地板到天花板的书架，石径和华丽的马赛克圆顶。墙上挂着一幅很大的彩色照片，照片上是一个表情严肃的男人，他戴着一条白色的头巾，脸上蒙着面纱。用来固定面纱的仪式结的两端看起来就像兔子耳朵。

The man is Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th emir of Kano, the second most important religious position in Nigeria. I watch as his assistant crawls across the carpet on his hands and knees. Bowing his head to the floor, he hands my business card up to the emir, then crawls away backward. Sanusi motions me to sit.

这个人就是穆罕默德·萨努西二世，卡诺的第14位埃米尔，尼日利亚第二重要的宗教地位。我看着他的助手用手和膝盖爬过地毯。他低下头，把我的名片递给埃米尔，然后向后爬去。萨努西示意我坐下。

I'm here to find out what the future holds for Nigeria. I've been told the emir is one of the "three or four" people who may know the answer. It's an important question, and not just for Nigerians. In 30 years, Nigeria will be, by population, larger than the U.S. By the end of the century it will be the third largest nation in the world, behind India and China, and the most densely populated large country, with more people per square mile than even India. It will have more Muslims than any other country in the world, and more Christians. And if it can get its socioeconomic act together, it may also be the continent's first superpower. It's got a tremendous number of advantages that should help it do that: resources, scale, talent, work ethic and a democratic government, but it has an equally long list of challenges.

我来这里是为了了解尼日利亚的未来。有人告诉我，埃米尔是知道答案的“三、四个人”之一。这是一个重要的问题，不仅仅是对尼日利亚人来说。30年后，尼日利亚的人口将超过美国。到本世纪末，中国将成为世界第三大国，仅次于印度和中国，也是人口最稠密的大国，每平方英里的人口甚至超过印度。它将拥有世界上最多的穆斯林和更多的基督徒。如果它能使其社会经济行动协调一致，它也可能成为欧洲大陆的第一个超级大国。它有大量的优势可以帮助它做到这一点:资源、规模、人才、职业道德和民主政府，但它同样面临着一长串的挑战。